"Malaysia holds the view that projection of military power by any power in the
region is acceptable only if it was meant to serve peaceful ends. This includes
stopping two warring factions from fighting, to protect a weak elected regime or
to secure a SLOC threatened by a rouge state or a serious non-military threat.
In all cases, the definition of legitimacy and deployment for the said purposes
must be determined and mandated by the United Nations. Military posturing meant
to undermine a government legitimately appointed by the people is unacceptable.
Force and intimidation in most cases are likely to invite “equal and opposite”
reaction leading to more instability and insecurity. For example, as admitted by
North Korea recently, its pursuit for nuclear weapons was in response to
persistent US military posturing."

Introduction

Indian Ocean (IO) is a body of water about five and a half times the size of the
United States geo-strategically (1) located between Africa, the Southern Ocean,
Asia and Australia. It encompasses the basins of the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf,
the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. As a coherent strategic
space the region hosts a number of important international sea-lanes of
communication (SLOCs). These SLOCs are the shortest and most economical sea
routes between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Substantial volume of
international long distance maritime goods from the Persian Gulf, Africa, Asia
and Europe pass through these SLOCs. They are used by more than half of the
world’s merchant fleet including 30,000 tankers annually. Overall, they account
for the carriage of the highest tonnage of goods.(2)

Being a geo-strategic, multi-cultural and multi-ideological region there has
been a long history of contentions for the control of the region. During the
Cold War days for instance, IO’s vast and deep ocean floors used to be the main
playground for the United States and Soviet Union nuclear ballistic missiles
submarines (SSBNs). It was here that they play the dangerous “cat and mouse”
game to ensure the delicate global strategic security balance. Under the Mutual
Assured Destruction (MAD) strategy both superpowers agreed to coexist by
threatening to annihilate one another. The SSBNs stealthy characteristics offer
them comparatively better survivability for counter strike purposes hence
ensuring that no one would have the advantage or be disadvantaged by a surprise
attack.

The demise of the Cold War has without doubt drastically reduced the probability
of an open military confrontation between the superpowers in the region. It has
also made it much easier for the United States as the only superpower to subdue
any non-conforming regimes. On the other hand, the ability to bring down
“undesirable” regimes has not made the prospect of achieving the desired
regional and global peace any brighter. The US has now to deal with more potent
non-state actors – the terrorists. Although limited in military capacity, these
terror groups are ideologically very powerful. Riding on the mass disapproval of
the perceived high-handed US post- September 11 regional policy, they are now
gaining from strength to strength. Acts of terror waged by these groups are now
being felt across the globe. This makes geo-political developments in the IOR
becoming an issue of interest and concern to all states big and small.

With this backdrop, this paper aims to present some of Malaysia’s interests,
concerns and aspirations in the IOR focusing on three core issues, namely:

a. The Importance of IOR Relative To Other Regions

b. Malaysia’s Specific Goals and Interests

c. Views on Regional Roles of Other Maritime Powers

Importance of IOR to Malaysia

IOR is important to Malaysia politically, economically and socially. Since her
independence Malaysia has enjoyed close political ties with almost all the
countries in the region. Ties particularly with West Asian states have been
firmly established through the sharing of common history, ideology and culture.
These affiliations are manifested in numerous political associations like the
Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC), British Commonwealth and Non-Aligned
Movement (NAM). Most of the West Asian and East African countries for instance
are linked to Malaysia through NAM and OIC. The Indian sub-continent countries on the other hand are
mostly linked through the Commonwealth.

Politico-security developments in IOR are significant to Malaysia as they have
proven to impinge on her domestic politics. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
in the late 70’s for example had led to the growth of local radical Islamic
groups. Malaysian Mujahideens who were recruited and indoctrinated to join the
war against the Soviets, later brought home with them an extreme brand of Islam.
Some of them subsequently became founders of Islamic based militant groups in
the country.

Economically, most of the IO rim states are Malaysia’s important trading
partners. India and Pakistan today are among the most important markets for her
palm oil and manufactured products. In turn the region is an important source of
raw materials and labour. Overall, the IOR is her 4th biggest trading partner.
Malaysia also has substantial investment in the region particularly in the oil
and gas as well as the construction industries. To facilitate and enhance trade
Malaysia has participated in regional economic groupings such as the Indian
Ocean Rim Cooperation (IORC), South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) and the International Forum on The Indian Ocean Region (IFIOR). The
extent of Malaysia’s economic engagements in IOR is best reflected by the trade
figures shown: (3)

Gross Malaysian External Trade With the IOR

Year

Export

Import

USD
million

USD
million

1998

5372

2619

1999

5716

3106

2000

6382

4730

2001

5805

4933

2002

6646

4674

Source: Statistics Department of
Malaysia

The real strategic value of the IOR however lies in its oil reserves
particularly in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia, Iran, India and Western
Australia. (4) The region today holds about 40% of the world’s oil and gas
reserves. Saudi Arabia alone holds 261 billion barrels while Iraq another 112
billion barrels. Iraq however is estimated to hold another 200 billion barrels
yet to be developed. (5) In addition, the region also rich in tin, uranium and
gold reserves as well as fishery resources. According to FAO’s estimate fishery
catch in IO could be increased to 20 million tons. Most of these resources are
yet to be tapped and will become potential targets of industrialized nations.
(6) And in environmental terms, vast oceans like IO plays important roles in
ensuring climatic balance as well as the continuous functioning of the earth’s
life support system.

The strategic importance of IO is set to increase as the global economic
integration gains momentum. Since future economic growth would be export-led
they rely heavily on SLOC security and access. At the same time, growth in
consumer-based industries would spur more demand for energy resources from the
region. The World Bank estimated in 1999, that the world sea-borne trade was
expected to increase from 21,480 billion ton-miles to 35,000 billion-ton miles
in 2010. (7)

Socio-culturally the close ties between Malaysia and IOR goes a long way into
history. Apart from trade, the link with the region, the Middle East in
particular, was established mainly through religious affiliation. Islam spread
to the country from the Middle East through South Asia. Among the testimonies of
the socio-cultural ties are the presence of more than one million Malaysians of
South Asian origin and the sharing of some custom and tradition including some
language terminologies.

The Relative Importance of IORVs Other Regions

Malaysia since her independence has adopted an open foreign policy posture based
on the principle of “being friendly to all”. This is perhaps best testified by
the number of foreign missions in the country. Today there are 85 foreign
missions in the country out which more than 20 are (8) from the IOR. What
subsequently determine the relative importance of a particular region at a
particular time is the politico-economic interactions that are taking place.
Economic engagement could perhaps be gauged from trade figures and below (9):

The above figures show that Malaysia’s two-way trade with IOR from 1998 to 2002
has recorded among the highest percentage of increase. In terms of value however
it is still comparatively lower than other regions particularly East Asia. (10)
The increase in the volume of trade with Europe would also mean more of her
import and export would pass through IO SLOC. From the politico-security
dimension, given the direct and immediate security threat posed by geo-strategic
developments in the IOR, the region would comparatively feature more prominently in Malaysia’s
overall strategic calculation, at least for the moment.

Malaysia’s Goals
and Interests in IOR

In line with her goal to be a fully developed nation by the year 2020,
Malaysia’s interest is to have a global environment conducive for her economic
development. In the IOR her interests and concerns revolve around maritime
rights, sea-lane security, transnational crimes, terrorism, projection of
military power and regional geopolitics.

Maritime rights

Malaysia’s increasing dependence on international trade is evident from the
shift in her global trading index from 20th most globalised trading nation in
the year 2000 to 18th position in the year 2002 (11) As a global trading nation
unimpeded access through IO SLOC is critical to Malaysia’s immediate interest is
to ensure the free flow of her trade and hence freedom of navigation through the
IO SLOCs. In this regard, she depends a lot on the judicious and expedient
implementation and enforcement of international laws such as the United Nation
Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).

The recent proposal to reinterpret UNCLOS to permit the “boarding and search of a suspect vessel by law enforcement
officials of another country when such vessel is in international waters”, is a
cause of concern to her. (12) This proposal is debatable for the fact the list
of offences in the SUA Convention and Protocol is quite broad and it is also
inconsistent with the principle of the freedom of the seas articulated in
Article 87 and Article 89 of UNCLOS. (13) If this proposal goes through the
question one could ask is, will there be a guarantee that it would not be abused
by discriminatory or overzealous enforcement?

The other concern is her right of access to economic resources in the IO
consistent with the principle of the sea as a common heritage of mankind. The
jurisdictions among others include freedom of navigation and over-flight, seabed
mining, fishing and other rights accorded by UNCLOS. Except for perhaps freedom
of navigation and over-flight, at the moment Malaysia has not fully exercised
her rights. This however, does not in any way imply that she does not intend to
utilize these rights in future. Recognizing the potential of tuna fishing in IO,
she is now gearing to utilize her fishing rights under the Indian Ocean Tuna
Commission. Serious efforts are now being made to encourage local fishermen to
embark on tuna fishing in the ocean. (14)

Therefore, given recent developments maritime rights would continue to be an
issue of contention between the maritime powers and smaller littoral states. In
as much as the maritime powers are concerned with threats of “creeping
jurisdictions” by littoral states on SLOC accessibility, the smaller trading
states are equally concerned with the “creeping security powers” pursued by the
major maritime powers over the high seas under the pretext of enforcing
security.

Sea Lane security.

As a global trading nation, security of IO SLOCs is thus critical to her
economic survival. Threats to these SLOCs could emanate from both state and
non-state sources. From state sources threat could come from rouge military.
From non-state sources threats could be in the forms of acts of piracy,
shipjacking and terrorism. For reasons like traffic congestion, hydrographic
constraints and the presence of economically deprived communities particularly
along the coastal areas on the Indonesian side of the waterway, the Malacca and
Singapore Straits at the southern gateway of IO would continue to be a popular
venue for piracy activities. Statistics of sea robberies in Southeast Asia are as shown
(15):

Deeply concerned with the impact of sea robberies in the straits on her economy
and the potential risks to lives, properties as well as environmental damage, apart from cooperation with neighboring states Malaysia on
her part, has made every endeavor to address the threat in waters under her
sovereignty. This includes enhancing surveillance and enforcement by the
installation of maritime surveillance radar chain along the entire straits and
deploying more patrol boats. Through these efforts reports of piracy attacks by
the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) has dropped by about 30% in 2001.(16)
However, the IMB had recently reported a 37% increase in the number of piracy
attacks particularly in Indonesian, Bangladeshi and Indian waters.

The sea being a coherent space allows criminals to move freely from one band of
territorial waters to another. This makes isolated enforcement by littoral
states if anything ineffective. On the other hand, resources are not unlimited.
Littoral states like Indonesia which has a long coastline, has to set
priorities. In doing so gaps would be created for perpetrators to capitalize
upon. On Malaysia’s part, it has to be admitted that despite the proximity of
these piracy prone waters, she has no security jurisdiction in other states’
sovereign waters.

Apart from that, political instability and violence on land such as the ongoing
war in Aceh could also endanger SLOC security. Therefore, efforts must be made
to restore political stability in IOR as a whole. This may involve diffusing
whatever tensions between states as well addressing the sources of threats
including those involving non-state actors. This is perhaps best done through
the involvement of the United Nations.

To enhance the overall effectiveness of her maritime law enforcement and sealane
security Malaysia has recently decided on the establishment of national
coastguard. Along with the construction of a new naval base at

Pulau Langkawi, it is hoped that the security of the north - eastern end of the
Straits of Malacca would be better managed.

Transnational crimes

The transnational crimes of immediate concern are; piracy, narco¬trafficking and
the smuggling of arms and human cargoes. Piracy involving armed-assault and
robbery common to the Straits of Malacca and South China Sea has now spread into
the Bay of Bengal, North-Eastern Sri Lanka and the Arabian Sea. (17) Unlike
normal piracy, shipjacking involves well- organized and well-funded
international syndicates. Piracy incidents are very serious because they involve
significant economic losses to ship owners, cargo owners and marine insurers, as
well as a risk to the lives of the crew.

Narco-trafficking. IOR is also home to more than 2/3 of the world’s narcotic
supplies with the Golden Triangle alone supplying about 56% of the world’s
demand. (18) As a country with a relatively developed international
transportation infrastructure and closely located to the drug-producing region,
Malaysia has been used as one of the transiting points. Some of these drugs
inevitably find their way into the local market. Despite its draconian drug
laws, drug abuse continues to be the country’s number one problem, causing
serious security and social problems. From 1988 to 2002, there were 235,495
reported cases of drug addiction in the country. (19)

Human smuggling. The continued disparity and uncertainties in global economy may
well lead to an increase in the movement of illegal immigrants. At one time
Malaysia was estimated to host more than one million illegal immigrants mostly
from ASEAN neighboring countries and South Asia. Most of them entered the
country through the sea. As we

have experienced, increased population of illegal immigrants becomes a security
threat when the effects of such growth tend to cause social and political
tensions. Analysis of Police statistics reveals that there is a direct
co-relation between the number of illegal immigrants and the crime index.
Besides, police investigations have also linked a substantial percentage of the
serious crimes such as murders, rapes and hired killings to syndicates operating
from across the Straits of Malacca. (20)

Statistics of the Number of Illegal Immigrants
Involved in Murder Cases

Indonesians Bangladeshis Thais

Filipinos Mynmars

Source:
Source: Royal Marine Police Statistic, Bukit Aman

Arms smuggling. The connection between drug and firearms trafficking is well
acknowledged. For this reason it is not surprising that the Golden Triangle
(Myanmar) and Golden Crescent (Afghanistan) are also heavens for firearms
smugglers. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE) for instance has
established a sophisticated network of arms trade from Golden Triangle that
passes through the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea. In Malaysia, despite
imposing death penalty for illegal possession of firearms, she has lately
experienced a surge in the number of firearms related crimes. Among others this
indicates that firearms are easily available. It is believed that most of these
arms were smuggled through her relatively porous northern land and sea borders.
Arms black markets operating from this region are known to feed the armament requirements of
insurgencies as far as India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines. (21)

As transnational crimes transcend across national borders and are well-organized
and well-funded, committed international cooperation is needed to address them.
This includes more cooperation among regional law enforcers involving exchange
of intelligence and harmonization of laws. At the same time more lasting
solutions need to be sought to address the threat of sea-robbery. This includes
the creation of more economic opportunities in the economically deprived regions
infested by sea robbers. In the same breadth, some loose ends in the command and
control of enforcement resources needs to be tightened up to ensure that
enforcers do not turn villain.

Terrorism.

Although threat of terrorism has existed in Malaysia since her early independent
days, what is going on today is different in both form and substance. While the
terror campaign by Communist terrorist was more defined in terms of cause and
geographical areas of operation, today’s threat is more open. Members of terror
organizations like the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) could be anywhere and the causes
pursued are mostly imported. Hence, most of the solutions to the problem are not
within Malaysia’s control.

In the maritime dimension, despite reports of terrorist movements, so far there
has been no confirmed act of terror being committed in the Straits of Malacca
and Singapore. The possibility though is always there. With the renewed fighting
in Aceh, it is conceivable that GAM fighters under pressure from operations by
Indonesian military may resort to acts of terror against high value vessels
transiting through the Straits to finance their war. They have been known to
attack or extort foreign oil

companies operating in the province before. In Malaysia, police investigations
have uncovered a terrorist organization Kumpulan Militan Malaysia (KMM) involved
in robbery-for-terror activities. At the regional level, if the reported links
between domestic terrorist groups and Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE)
are true, then this should be a cause for further concern.

Malaysia is however of the view that the current global counter terrorism
efforts are just short-term crisis management measures. As we are now seeing in
Iraq, force and intimidation alone could not stop or deter an act of terror. If
an overwhelming force is indiscriminately used it is more likely to worsen the
situation. Drastic preventive security measures such as out terrorizing the
terrorists by killing suspected or innocent bystanders or demolishing their
homes are likely to breed more terrorists. A long-term solution to address this
threat should focus on solving its root causes. The implementation of the Middle
East road map to resolve the Israel-Palestine impasse and installing self-rule
regime in Iraq in the quickest possible time could perhaps be steps forward in
addressing the threat.

Projection of Military Power

Malaysia holds the view that projection of military power by any power in the
region is acceptable only if it was meant to serve peaceful ends. This includes
stopping two warring factions from fighting, to protect a weak elected regime or
to secure a SLOC threatened by a rouge state or a serious non-military threat.
In all cases, the definition of legitimacy and deployment for the said purposes
must be determined and mandated by the United Nations. Military posturing meant
to undermine a government legitimately appointed by the people is unacceptable.
Force and intimidation in most cases are likely to invite “equal and opposite”
reaction leading to more instability and insecurity. For example, as admitted by North Korea recently, its pursuit for nuclear weapons was in
response to persistent US military posturing. (22)

Unilateral deployment of warship for whatever reason such as to patrol a distant
SLOC within a sovereign territory of another state is considered as posturing if
done without due regard to diplomatic sensitivities. However incapable a
littoral could be in enforcing its waters, as a sovereign state it has its own
pride and dignity to uphold. Hence, it deserves the respect to be kept informed
of any foreign military activity in its sovereign waters. In this regard, the
right of unimpeded transit under the “transit passage” regime does not bestow
one the right to come in to enforce law and order.

Worst of all, Malaysia disapproves the projection of military power involving
deployment of nuclear weapons. Besides being morally aversive it could
unnecessarily expose littoral states to nuclear accident with the potential of
causing serious collateral damages to lives and properties.

Geopolitics of IOR

Geo-political developments in IOR like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have had
profound impact on Malaysia’s economy and security. Economically, the overall
global economic jitters caused by the war had inadvertently affected Malaysia’s
economic performance. The other is the direct economic impact from the post-war
surge in terrorism. The devastating Bali bombing for example had affected the
flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as well as the tourism industry in
Southeast Asia. The Malaysian economy is highly dependant on both FDI and
tourism. (23)

Security wise, the spillover effect of the war had an impact on Malaysia’s
internal security and political stability. The war had indeed played into the hands of the regional militant groups like JI and KMM who were out to
replace the present Malaysian government along with some other Southeast Asian
governments by force. Malaysia is however rather fortunate as she was able to
contain the threat by nipping the problem in the bud by using the
“controversial” Internal Security Act to detain more than 60 JI and KMM
members.(24)

Similarly, Malaysia is equally concerned with the unresolved India-Pakistan
conflict over Kashmir. Apart from causing regional instability, any conflict
between the two nuclear rivals could result in a regional nuclear holocaust. The
security of regional SLOCs and consequently the global economic performance
would ultimately be affected. And perhaps on a lesser scale, is the concern with
stability in Sri Lanka given that a long-term political solution to the
prolonged conflict between Government/LTTE is yet to be within sight. The civil
war has previously been known to affect SLOC in the northeastern part of IO
apart from propagating criminal activities like money laundering and arms
smuggling.

Behavior and Ambitions of Regional Maritime Powers

As a small state Malaysia is obviously concerned with the behaviors and postures
of key regional players in the IO region. She is certainly uncomfortable with
the US unilateral policy in the IOR as apart from contravening international
law, she is unnecessarily being burdened by the spillover effect of the US
intervention. More than that, she is worried that the precedent set would
justify future unilateral intervention to replace regimes perceived to be
“rogue” in the eyes of the superpower of the day. If this becomes an acceptable
international practice, no country would be safe from threat of military
occupation. Apart from undermining the process of dialogue and cooperation this
would breed a sense of global insecurity and would ultimately strengthen the hands of the
hardliners.

Soviet Union and China’s extra regional power role in IO seems at the moment not
too significant. Both countries are now preoccupied with their economic reforms.
On the other hand, India’s recent unilateral deployment of warships to patrol
the Strait of Malacca has evoked a lot of domestic concerns. Although the
deployment was not regarded as a direct military threat, the concerns are
genuine because the warships were essentially patrolling Malaysia’s front yard.

Conclusion

The IOR is geo-strategically important to Malaysia in political, economic and
security terms. While having close political ties with almost all IO rim states,
she has established substantial trading links with most. The SLOCs through IO
are critical for economic survival. Although Malaysia is located quite a distant
away from West Asia, she was not immune from effects of regional turbulence.

While recent wars in the region had adversely affected her economy, she had also
to deal with the rise in domestic and regional terror activities born out of
these wars. Hence, it is Malaysia’s fervent hope that stability and security in
the region be restored at the earliest opportunity. Of course this could not be
achieved by the mere use of military might to replace “rouge” regimes or to
out-terrorize the terrorists. Experiences have shown that terror begets more
terror and then the cycle of violence would continue indefinitely. Since
terrorism are just symptoms of a serious contagious disease, they could only be
diagnosed by identifying and addressing it root causes. To be able to do this
sensibility must prevail over prejudice, hatred and vengeance.

2. Vijay Sakhuja. Indian Ocean and the Safety of Sea Lines of Communication.
IDSA. 18/07/03. < www.idsa-india. org/ an-aug-4.d.htm > In this article
“geo-strategic importance has been interpreted as a geographical area within
which a state’s interest lie, and is willing to use its political, economic and
military means to safeguard its interests

6. Kerr, Alex. The Indian Ocean Region: Resources and Development: University of
Western Australia Press 1981. p.216.

7. Vijay, Ibid.

8. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Malaysia

9. Statistics Department of Malaysia

10. Statistics Department of Malaysia

11. The New Straits Times Malaysia, 09 May 2003

12. Robert Beckman. “Issues of Public International Law relating to Piracy and
Armed Robbery against Ships in the Malacca and Singapore Straits”. SSA/SILS
Piracy Seminar. SILS. Singapore: 22 October 1999.